seantobin5

Hello there, I'm in the process of putting AC in my '98 HX and I bought a new OEM Sanden compressor. I'm planing to get the AC lines flushed and put it together asap. How much oil should I put in the new compressor once I drain it all out? I don't want to put too much or too little. Also, where and how should i put the new PAG oil in? Thanks in advance!

fragmare

A lot of new compressors come with the proper amount of oil already in them. Before you add any oil, confirm there's not already some in there. If there's no oil in the compressor, I believe it's somewhere around 6.5 oz (maybe even a touch over that) for a bone dry system... at least in an EG. Not sure about an EK, but I'd bet it's similar.

If you're going to add oil, make sure you add it to the suction (low side) line and spin the clutch plate by hand a few times to get it worked around inside the compressor.

nealnanoHX

^^ Wow 6.5 OZ of oil will cause some major issues and could even kill a new compressor. Read the instructions that come with the compressor. Normally they have a small amount of oil in the but only to stop corrosion while sitting in the box. You need to add 1 OZ of oil to the low side port in the compressor then turn the compressor several times to get the oil flowing inside. Once you have the AC system back in the car and together and after you vacuum all the air out of the system you will need to add 2-3 OZ to the system. Keep in mind that there will still be oil in the EVAP and condenser still unless you replaced or flushed them.

fragmare

I'm assuming there is no oil anywhere else in the system, since the OP stated he is installing the A/C parts himself. If the other A/C parts still have their normal amount of residual oil in them, then yea, you'll want to only add about 4 oz to a dry (or fully drained) compressor. In the service manual for EGs, it shows the total amount of oil in the system as totaling up to around 6.5 oz. or so. 6.85 oz, actually, now that I check the manual.

OP, basically you'll want to just follow the instructions that came with the compressor, as Neal said. Every manufacturer is different. I've heard of some compressors coming with the full amount of oil they need in them. Neal, here, has seen some that only come with 1 oz. If the other parts of the system you're putting together are bone dry (as in brand new, or recently flushed), you'll want to add the proper amount of oil to them too upon installation, or shortly thereafter.

94EG8

Drain the oil from the oil from the old compressor and put the same amount in the new compressor.

fragmare

I think the OP is starting from scratch, so there wouldn't be an old compressor to compare oil levels with. At least that's the impression I got from the first post.

94EG8

You're kind of screwed when you do that. Honda doesn't actually specify how much oil is supposed to be in the compressor (possibly because they used a few different compressors) so the service manual tells you to drain the old compressor, measure what came out, and they put the same amount in the new compressor.

seantobin5

Thanks for all the replies! Everything is bone dry, all the lines, evaporator, condenser, etc. I'm going to try to install it this weekend while I'm still waiting for my idler pulley assembly to come in the mail then I can get the belt on and charge it up. I thought I would be fine without ac but I wasn't... so I drove my mom's '12 Forester around which has an AMAZING AC system. So What I'm getting from this is I should add ~4 oz to the compressor (after I drain the oil out) to the suction hole and add another ~2.5 oz to the receiver/dryer. I've already put in my evap. box and replaced the expansion valve so I won't have to do any more expensive, expensive repair in the future to the AC system.

fragmare

Yea, I know... the Honda manual is a little confusing about it. They don't come out and explicitly state how much oil the compressor needs, but they kind of imply it. The EG manual says this:

"On compressor replacement, subtract the volume of oil drained from the removed compressor from 120cc (4 fl oz), and drain the calculated volume of oil from the new compressor.
120cc (4 fl oz) - Volume of removed compressor = draining volume"

If a new compressor comes with 4oz of oil, and you don't drain ANY oil from the old compressor (or don't have an old compressor to drain from), then it stands to reason that you wouldn't have to drain any oil from the new compressor. Which implies that a bone dry compressor (or a fully drained one) should get 4oz of oil. if you look at the other amounts of oil in the system on a per-part basis, it all adds up to around 6.85oz of oil, including the 4oz that's supposed to go in the compressor.

This is from the EG manual, though. EK amounts might be slightly different.